Sir Ian Murray McKellen was born on May 25, 1939.
For 65 years, he has been doing what he does best: providing theater, film and television audiences with what are recognized as some of the most outstanding performances of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The plethora of awards and accolades attests to a stellar career. He won a Tony, the Laurence Olivier Award (six times), an Actor Award and a Golden Globe. He was nominated five times for a BAFTA and the same number of times for an Emmy. He was also nominated for an Oscar.
Ever since he made his theater debut at the Belgrade Theater in 1961, he has conquered role after role. In 1969, he joined the Prospect Theatre Company to play the lead in Shakespeare’s “Richard II” and in Marlowe’s “Edward II.”
In 1980, he provided a Tony Award-winning performance as Anthony Solieri in “Amadeus.”
McKellen’s outstanding film performances include the story of gay film director James Whale of the classic Frankenstein movie fame, “Gods and Monsters.” He also appeared as Uncle Freddie in “Bent,” a story based on the Nazi persecution of homosexuals following the infamous Night of the Long Knives and the murder of gay SA leader, Ernst Rohm.
McKellen is perhaps most well known for his roles as the eccentric Sir Leigh Teabing in Ron Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code,” Magneto in the X-Men films and the wizard Gandalf in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit” series.
Seemingly never limited in the roles he takes, the actor also played a vampire in the Pet Shop Boys video for their song, “Heart.”
McKellen’s mother died when he was 12. His father, descended from a long line of Scot-Irish ministers, died when McKellan was 25. Well aware of his queerness for all of his adult life, McKellen did not come out publicly, however, until January 1988, at the age of 49. He did so, taking part in a BBC Radio program on anti-gay legislation being considered in the UK.
The actor’s first relationship began in 1964 with Brian Taylor. It lasted eight years. From 1978 to 1988, he was in a relationship with Sean Mathis, the director of “Bent.” In 2024, he ended his relationship with the much younger Oscar Colon-Morrey. The two had met during the touring stage production of “Mother Goose,” in which Colon-Morrey portrays Jack, the son of McKellen’s Mother Goose.
Despite his age McKellen shows no sign of slowing down in his performances or in his LGBTQ+ activism.
In May 2025, he appeared with the Scissor Sisters at their 02 Arena reunion show and then later, in June, with the band at Glastonbury Festival. He recently opened a theatre space in County Durham for the purpose of employing local talent and is co-owner of a 16th-century pub, The Grapes, in London.
In March 2025, McKellen was quoted in The Times of London as saying, “I’ve never met anybody who came out and regretted it.”